Hillside employees get one-month reprieve in fight over layoffs

HILLSIDE — The question of whether Mayor Joseph Menza can unilaterally layoff nearly 50 employees will be decided in court and not by the state's civil service commission, which had signed off on the plan, a Superior Court judge ruled today.

But while the workers whose jobs are threatened will stay employed for at least another month, township officials said Hillside may go broke by March if major spending cuts are not enacted.

Five police officers, 12 firefighters, 10 public works employees and the township's entire clerical staff of 22 workers were informed in October that their jobs were to be eliminated after negotiations failed to gain concessions from the seven public employee unions.

But Hillside's council sued the mayor and the state's civil service commission, claiming the layoffs were illegal without the council's consent.

Judge John F. Malone set a Jan. 7 date for the next hearing in the case..

"This is a question of law," the judge said. "Does the mayor have the authority to do what he did?"

Hillside loses roughly $193,000 every month that the layoffs are not enacted, said Menza's attorney, Christine Gillen. At this rate, she said, the township could be broke by March.

Council president Frank Deo agreed.

"I'm taking that as a real possibility," Deo said after the hearing. But first, he said, the question of who has the authority to issue layoffs must be decided.